Friday, March 24, 2006

Lies And The Lying President Who Tells Them

One of the annoying things about covering the illegal immigration issue is the tissue of lies that swirls around it. Unfortunately, Mr. Bush has been at the center of the misinformation campaign, so this article in the NYT today was interesting. Here's a couple of things that leapt off the page at me...

Philosophically, the president, whose own sensibility on the issue was shaped by his experience as governor of Texas, says he is committed to a program that meets the needs of business: the creation of a pool of legal foreign workers for industries that have come to rely on low-wage labor.

"Low wage labor?" But, but, but, I thought illegal immigration didn't lower wages? Of course it does as any blue collar American will tell you, but getting a pro-illegal immigration supporter to admit that can be a bit like pulling teeth.

Mr. Bush also brings to the debate a stated belief that the country benefits from the immigration of hardworking people and their dreams of becoming Americans. He often talks about the United States as a land of immigrants, and on Monday in Cleveland he said that "my only advice for the Congress and for people in the debate is, understand what made America."

This is priceless. Ummm, so I thought the new "amnesty" oh, excuse me, "legalization" no, that's not the term this week, um, "normalization?" No that's not right either. Well, whatever we're calling the low wage slaves this week, I thought all the different plans didn't call for automatic citizenship, so why the talk about their dreams of becoming Americans?

Is somebody lying to us?

"Our government must enforce our borders; we've got plans in place to do so," Mr. Bush said on Thursday. "But part of enforcing our borders is to have a guest-worker program that encourages people to register their presence so that we know who they are, and says to them, if you're doing a job an American won't do, you're welcome here for a period of time to do that job."

And finally, I think Mr. Bush's Harvard is peeking here. "Jobs Americans won't do?" Which jobs are those Mr. Bush? Could it be wages businesses won't pay? I think it is, and in that case they are all welcome to go screw.

Please president Bush, listen to the American people, we aren't racists or xenophobes, we are merely looking out for one another. Like countrymen ought to. I understand that many businessmen will be upset, but you know what? It strikes me as the height of arrogance for a business to demand non-American low wage slaves to serve Americans.